New Bresser Dob and focusers across the range.

[russ.will]

They may be good, or they may not, but Bresser seem to have come up with a new [Crayford?] focuser across the entire range. I dunno what the Newt focuses were like, but the old frac focusers, whilst able to hold pretty much anything, were a bit agricultural in operation - read patience was required! Single and dual speed variants seem to be available, but I can't tell if it's possible to upgrade from one to t'other, yet.

The interesting scope is the "new" 8" F6 Dob. I say new, but the OTA ( bar the focuser) and indeed the tube rings are all as before; read nicely finished with GSO mirrors, so par for the breed.

No, it's the fact that at a princely £333, it comes with a relatively compact Dob base (again, compared to the budget breed) that has, wait for it, decent sized Alt bearings. Who'duv thunk? Better still, because these bearings bolt up to standard tube rings ( just add dovetail and off you trot on an EQ mount) faffing about with counterweights is negated. You simply loosen the bolts and slide the the OTA up/down to rebalance. The Alt bearings appear to have the same surface material as my old ES Dob did, so it should work very nicely.

The base also breaks down for transport and because it has metal threaded inserts, they won't strip the threads. I don't know how quick it is to do this, but it at least seems you won't end up with bolts spinning in chip board dust.

I've no idea what the bundled "LED finder" is, but I assume it's the same item as bundled with the ES Dobs, which is best described as adequate. The reason for this assumption is because it seems to me that the Bresser plugs the gap under the smallest ES 10" truss Dob. Given that there is no existing 10" or larger Bresser OTA to give this treatment to, I think this is a reasonable assumption.

All the same, nice to see a new addition at the budget end that offers a sound mechanical difference for it's existence.

Russell

[Chris]

Couldn't agree more Russ, I noticed the new focusers and the Dob just the other day on the Harrison telescopes site and thought just the same things as you've described.

There is a very big chance that I'll be buying a scope with the new Hex focuser, if so I'll report on how well it works. Bear in mind though I'll be comparing it too my C100ED focuser  

[russ.will]

I'd compare it to my C100 focuser, but I'd have to track down the recycling centre it ended up at!

Russell

[Chris]

Whatever it gets recycled into, I'm sure it will be a promotion.

[F15Rules]

I saw your post Chris intimating on 'Show us your frac" that you are thinking of a new Bresser AR127l with "Hexafoc" focuser (just love that name!)?

I'll be intrigued to hear what you make of it if you get one..I saw it on the www.bresser.de site and thought it said they are R&P with the hexafoc part somehow adding rigidity (and maybe rotate ability?).

I must say I really like my AR127l- a lot. The lens has a good figure and polish and is razor sharp with quite well controlled CA- though it is not at all an ED in this regard. But the full 5" aperture really shows in the detail and magnitude reach versus a good 4" frac and the sharpness of image is excellent.

My focuser is simple but works. Its weakness is fine focus at high power but with practice you do get used to it. A moonlite on this scope such as Derek's on the other thread must make this good scope a really excellent all rounder.

At c£250 the new AR127l is great value even allowing for the lesser accessories that now seem to get bundled. The 8x50/finder is a good one though. The scope makes a really good, versatile all rounder.

Good to see Bresser pushing the quality to price equation in the right direction..

Dave

[Chris]

Hi Dave, I'm pretty much set on buying either the 127 or 152L, so I'm pretty sure I'll be in a position to report on the Hex (for short) focuser

I'm leaning towards the 127L after speaking to John.

[F15Rules]

I'd also go with the 127 Chris. The 152 is a beast and heavy too. The 127 aperture hits the sweet spot for me and is also cheaper so you could also buy another ES ep!:-)

Dave

[Chris]

They are out of stock at Harrison's, and a 1-3 week wait via Amazon, so I've just ordered one from stock at Bresser.de for 257 pounds shipped